Cruz has ‘wow factor,’ Santorum says

U.S. Senate candidate Ted Cruz picked up another big-name endorsement this morning when former presidential hopeful Rick Santorum said on Glenn Beck’s radio show that “Ted Cruz is spellbinding, a tremendous orator and principled.”

Although Santorum didn’t mention front-runner David Dewhurst by name, there was little doubt that he was homing in on the lieutenant governor’s Achilles heel: his desultory campaign style. On Michael Berry’s KTRH talk show later in the morning, the former Pennsylvania senator said Cruz had “the wow factor.” That’s not a term commonly associated with Dewhurst, who continues to lead in all the polls, although some polls show Cruz narrowing the gap.

“We need people who strongly can communicate and deliver the message on a variety of fronts,” Santorum said. Cruz’s passion and his eloquence are “hugely important.”

Cruz, a Tea Party favorite and former Texas solicitor general, picked up an endorsement from Sarah Palin earlier this month, as well as support, financial and otherwise, from the Club for Growth, the Tea Party Express and FreedomWorks. Those groups see Dewhurst as the next establishment politician to fall to a Tea Party insurgent, just as longtime Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar fell to Tea Party stalwart Richard Mourdock earlier this month.

Santorum told Berry he is trying to come to Texas before the May 29 primary, but if not he’ll be making calls on the candidate’s behalf.

“I have a lot of confidence that he has exactly the character and the skills and the convictions that we need in the U.S. Senate,” Santorum told Berry.